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Madison Patty
English 1100-37
D. Vinson
5th October 2014
Part One:
In Roger Ebert’s review of The Silence of the Lambs he is reaching out to a broad mature
audience. He does a great job at establishing at the beginning of his review that The Silence of
the Lambs is targeted for a broader audience rather then Hannibal, which was constructed for
more of a “geek show” audience. Ebert states, “The popularity of Jonathan Demme’s movie is
likely to last as long as there is a market for being scared.” In this quote he is saying in a wittier
way that The Silence of the Lambs will always be a popular movie for those who are into horror
films.
Roger broadens his audience even wider by going into detail about Clarice’s struggle that
she has to overcome because she is a woman in the law enforcement field. He says in the review,
“Her bravest moment may come when she orders the gawking sheriff’s deputies out of the room
at the funeral home (“Listen here now!”).” Ebert hitting on this idea in the plot about Clarice is
very smart because this attracts women to this movie that also feel that they are having to
overcome male dominance in their work field.
Roger uses star power in his review to bring in an audience that appreciates a great film
with great actors. He talks about how Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins won Oscars for best
actress and actor. He also goes into detail about how astonishing it was that the Academy would
remember a film being released 13 months before the Oscars because it usually votes for films
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that are still in theaters. He states that the reason behind this is because “”Silence” was so clearly
one of kind that it could not be ignored.”
Roger Ebert’s tone is nothing but commending and appreciative of Jonathan Demme’s
brilliant work. Ebert writes about how Demme’s shows themes through out the movie by using
the characters, soundtrack, and story line. He talks about the parallel themes of Lector and
Clarice by comparing Lector’s situation, being trapped in a jail cell, and Clarice’s situation,
being trapped in a place where men are always scrutinizing her. He also talks about the themes
that the soundtrack carries through out the key plots in the film. Ebert says “When the
soundtrack wants to create terror, as when Clarice is in Bill’s basement, it mixes her frightened
panting with the sound of Bill’s heavy breathing and the screams of the captive girl—and then
adds the dog’s frenzied barking, which psychologically works at a deeper level than everything
